Faith & Persistence Through Cancer
- Country singer Wade Hayes beat stage four colon cancer twice and truly believes his life was “spared for a reason” following his faith through adversity and his oncologist’s determination for him to overcome the disease.
- Hayes was diagnosed back in 2011 and went into remission in 2012. Now he’s sharing his inspirational story to help others stay hopeful and understand the importance of getting second opinions.
- Colorectal cancer screenings have made a big difference in colorectal cancer prevention. But with colorectal cancer cases in younger people such as Thackston on the rise, the recommended age for beginning screening has been moved from 50 to 45.
- One of the greatest cancer researchers of our time tells SurvivorNet that people should get “multiple” opinions following a cancer diagnosis.
- SurvivorNetTV presents ‘Turning to Faith,’ an episode from our original series SN & You that depicts cancer survivors’ journeys and the role faith plays in their lives.
Hayes, who was diagnosed back in 2011 and went into remission in 2012, initially thought he was “too young” to get colon cancer, but his shock diagnosis and incredible journey has allowed him to share his inspirational story to others.
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Hayes recalled record producer Don Cook reaching out to his fellow country musician Kix Brooks, from the hit duo Brooks and Don, in the wake of his cancer cancer, which prompted Brooks to take Hayes to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
He explained, “I met a brilliant oncologist named Dr. Jordan Berlin. Initially at Vanderbilt, they were going to put me in comfort care as well and Dr. Berlin fought for my life, literally, and they decided on his word to go ahead and try his route.
“Several surgeries, and a lot of chemotherapy … but you know, that was 11 years ago, and it took me well into 13 before I was clear of cancer, but I’m still clear to this day.”
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“It’s a miracle, truly a miracle,” he added.
Hayes also pointed out how his faith in God has had a major role in his cancer journey, saying, “I tell everyone that God has made it painfully clear He’s the reason I’m still around.
“Because it was nothing short of a miracle.
He concluded in the short video clip of the interview, shared on Hayes’ Instagram page, “When you’ve got two hospitals going to put you in comfort care because you have it that bad and then you make a full recovery—is just unbelievable. And I thank Him every day for it.
It’s lovely to see Hayes sharing his story and helping others overcome diversity with hope as he continues to do what he loves, create music.
Hayes released a new album last year called, “Old Country Still Rocks,” and often takes to social media to share some of his songs and music videos.
Alongside a video clip of his first official video for the new album, he wrote, “The new album is an 11-song set that I’m really proud of. I’ve always wanted to make a record covering some of my favorite country songs.
“You couldn’t find a better batch of songs to show you where I came from, what influenced me and why I do the style of music that I do. Honestly, I could do another covers album tomorrow of songs that didn’t make the cut. There are so many great country songs that sound just as relevant today as they did when they were first hits…”
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Wade Hayes’ Cancer Diagnosis
Wade Hayes started experiencing intense abdominal pain and experienced rectal bleeding at age 42, back in 2011, a time he thought he was “too young” to have colon cancer.
Expert Colon Cancer Resources
- Colorectal Cancer Is On The Rise in Young Adults — Here’s What We Know
- Colorectal Cancer Screening: a New Study Questions the Effectiveness of Colonoscopies But Specialists Reinforce its Importance
- All Americans Should Begin Colorectal Cancer Screening at Age 45, According to New Guidelines; Previous Age Was 50
- Debating Over Treatment of Colorectal Cancer – The New Evidence About Watch and Wait
- Clinical Trials for Colorectal Cancer Can Offer Cutting-Edge Treatment
He opened up to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance (CCA) about a decade ago to talk about how he felt before his shock diagnosis.
“I didn’t realize how much I had taken for granted and I think it really took this to open my eyes to it,” Hayes said. “I’m looking at the world through completely different eyes now and certainly not trying to take anything for granted and trying to make the most out of everything that I can.”
When Hayes initially went to a doctor about his symptoms, they weren’t that severe and he thought they maybe had something to do with going to the gym a lot, since he felt he was overall healthy and had no family history of colon cancer.
“At 42, we thought I was ‘too young’ to even be considering colon cancer. But once my abdominal pains and bleeding became more severe, the colonoscopy was recommended,” he said.
“When we found out that I had cancer, the doctor told me that my tumor was so large on my intestines that I had cancer for years before I knew it,” Hayes continued. “Looking back on life, I was having symptoms for several years before it got bad enough to get me to go to the doctor. You’re really never too young for this disease.”
Hayes’ cancer eventually came back in his lymph nodes. Overall, he endured three years of surgery and chemo.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get it back to 100%, but I feel better. In the big picture, I look at it and realize I’m still around. I’m still here and I’ve got the opportunity to hopefully help prevent somebody from going through what I did,” he added.
Understanding Your Options With Stage Four Colon Cancer
Hayes has continued to spread awareness for the early detection of colon cancer and in an effort to urge others to get checked, he said, “If you’re having any symptoms whatsoever, you need to get checked out. If you have any family history of colon cancer or other related diseases, regardless of your age, you need to get screened.
“And if you’re 50, you need to have a screening regardless. You do not want this to happen to you. My life was forever changed the moment the doctor walked in gave me the long-faced. However long I may get to stay on this planet, it’s changed forever and it’s a change you don’t want.”
Regular screening for colon cancer is recommended to begin at age 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Advocating for Your Health Can Be Lifesaving
Hayes’ decision to get a second opinion led to the lifesaving treatment he received.
Patients advocating for their health can lead to better patient outcomes. This is especially important when you find your doctor has misdiagnosed your symptoms.
WATCH: Why a Second Opinion Matters
A component of advocating for yourself in healthcare includes going back to the doctor multiple times and even getting multiple opinions.
Dr. Steven Rosenberg is the National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery, and he previously told SurvivorNet about the advantages of getting input from multiple doctors.
RELATED: Cancer research legend urges patients to get multiple opinions.
“If I had any advice for you following a cancer diagnosis, it would be, first, to seek out multiple opinions as to the best care,” National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery Dr. Steven Rosenberg told SurvivorNet.
“Because finding a doctor up to the latest information is important.”
Not all doctors agree on the right course of treatment, and advances in genetics and immunotherapy are creating new options. For these reasons, a second opinion is critically important to ensure you get the best care possible.
The Power of Faith
For some people like Hayes, turning to faith can be a great way to keep spirits high when cancer starts taking an emotional and/or physical toll. New York City Presbyterian Pastor Tom Evans previously spoke with SurvivorNet about the importance of find ways to cope with the complex web of feelings you may be experiencing after a cancer diagnosis.
“It’s important to reach out in a simple prayer to God, even if you’ve never prayed before, you don’t know what to say, a heartfelt plea, ‘God, help me, be with me,'” Pastor Evans told SurvivorNet. “You can reach out to God and you can reach out to people, your friends and family and say, ‘I can’t do this on my own. I need you,’
“It’s in that willingness to be open and to receive that we can actually find something deeper that we never would’ve encountered without this hardship.”
WATCH: Faith Perspective Opening Yourself Up to Others After a Cancer Diagnosis
Meanwhile, a study published in Cancer, 69% of cancer patients say that they rely on faith throughout cancer treatment, and use prayer as a way to call for good health.
Researchers who studied the relationship between praying and life expectancy in cancer patients found the power of prayer helps withstand pain and suffering.
“The patients can overcome their illnesses with the help of praying and of other religious actions, thus helping them gain more power and being able to control their illnesses, as they know a lot about their sickness therefore, they can stand the pain and suffering and become hopeful to future,” researchers N. Hekmati Pour and H. Hojjati said in the Journal of Medicine and Life.
Ovarian cancer survivor Monica Layton shares how her church was her biggest support system
Understanding Colon Cancer
Dr. Heather Yeo, a colorectal surgeon and surgical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian, previously told SurvivorNet, “Colon cancer is considered a silent and deadly killer.
“What happens is people often don’t know that they have colon cancer. They don’t have any symptoms. That’s why we screen for colon cancer in the United States.”
The Rate of Colon Cancer is Increasing in Those Under 50
“You should be screened for colon cancer, even if you have no family history. Once you have your initial screening colonoscopy, if there are no polyps and you have no high-risk factors, usually once every 10 years is fine,” she advises.
“Colon cancer is a slowly progressing cancer. If you have any family history of colon cancer, you should be screened about 10 years before your family member had colon cancer. So if you have a family member that was 53, you should be screened at 43.”
Colon Cancer Appearing More in Younger People
Although the average age people are diagnosed with colon cancer is 68 for men and 72 for women, according to the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute reports that since the 1990s, colorectal cancer cases have been rising among adults younger than 50.
Research published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians found the proportion of cases in people younger than 55 years old increased from 11% in 1995 to 20% in 2019.
“We know rates are increasing in young people, but it’s alarming to see how rapidly the whole patient population is shifting younger, despite shrinking numbers in the overall population,” cancer epidemiologist and lead study author Rebecca Siegel said.
Researchers are still trying to determine why younger people are being diagnosed in greater numbers. Some experts point to risk factors which include obesity, physical inactivity, and smoking as a possible explanation for the increase.
“We don’t know for sure why we are seeing earlier onset and death from colon cancer,” Dr. Heather Yeo, a surgical oncologist who specializes in colorectal cancers at Weill Cornell Medicine, told SurvivorNet.
“It is likely a combination of factors, including diet and genetics as well as access to care and some environmental factors,” Dr. Yeo added.
Screening for Colon Cancer
Luckily, most colon cancers can be prevented through routine screenings. Colon cancer screenings usually involve a colonoscopy, in which a long thin tube attached to a camera is used to examine the colon and rectum.
The advantage of a colonoscopy is that your doctor can remove any polyps found during the test before they turn into cancer. If no polyps are discovered, the next screening won’t be needed for about 10 years.
Dr. Paul Oberstein Explains Common Colon Cancer Symptoms
A colonoscopy isn’t the only colon cancer screening test. There are other options, including stool tests that detect blood or DNA, and flexible sigmoidoscopy, which checks only the lower third of your colon.
Ask your doctor whether any of these tests would be good additions to a colonoscopy, based on your risks and/or personal preferences.
RELATED: Can the Stuff in My Gut Cause Cancer? There May Be A Link to Colon Cancer
“We know that colon cancers can be prevented when polyps are found early,” Dr. Yeo added. “Lowering the screening age helps somewhat with this, but access to care is a real problem.”
The American Gastrointestinal Association lowered the recommended initial age for a colorectal screening from 50 to 45.
“The fact that we have now reduced the screening age to 45 is a huge step,” Michael Sapienza, CEO of Colorectal Cancer Alliance, told SurvivorNet in an earlier conversation.
“It will allow us to potentially screen 15 million more eligible Americans a year and will certainly save lives. I also think what it’ll do is bring much-needed attention that even if you’re younger than 45 you should be paying more attention. I think that’s also a really important message.”
Keeping Up With Recommended Screenings
As a part of routine care, people who have had colitis for eight years or more may get a colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer every one to three years, depending on their individual level of inflammation.
In the general population, guidelines recommend colon cancer screening once every ten years starting at age 45. Follow up screenings sooner than ten years are based on whether you have any abnormalities.
Dr. Heather Yeo Breaks Down Different Ways to Screen for Colon Cancer
Doctors use colonoscopies to check for abnormal growths (polyps) in the colon that can be cancerous or develop into cancer. People with colitis tend to develop a different kind of polyp than other people do, and these polyps are more likely to contain atypical or pre-cancerous cells.
“So those polyps are one step closer to developing into cancer, whereas a lot of the polyps we find in the general population are benign,” Dr. Limketkai said.
Crohn’s disease, however, is a little bit different. Because this condition can affect any part of the GI tract, Crohn’s disease only raises risk for colon cancer if the inflammation is in the colon, which varies from one person to the next.
Does inflammation cause any other types of cancer? Dr. Stephen Freedland explains.
“If it spares the colon, then we don’t have to do all the surveillance that we do in colitis,” Dr. Limketkai explained. “Of course, you may need to have colonoscopies for other reasons, and while you’re doing that, you’re getting a screening anyway.”
When it comes to inflammatory bowel disease, the major risk factor for colon cancer is untreated disease. Treatment, which may include a combination of medication, dietary changes and routine endoscopies, keeps inflammation under control. Sticking to that treatment can help keep colon cancer risk to a minimum, too.
Treating Colon Cancer at Stages One, Two and Three
When it comes to treatment for colon cancer at stages one, two and three, there is the potential for a curative effect with surgical resection.
Colon Cancer Stages One, Two and Three
“As long as it hasn’t spread outside of the local area, it’s still considered a curable colon cancer,” Dr. Yeo told SurvivorNet.
According to Dr. Yeo, all patients with stage one to three colon cancers undergo surgery “if they’re healthy enough to tolerate it.” But there’s more nuance to the possibility of additional treatment for stages two and three.
“Stage 2 a little bit more in between,” she said. “It really depends on kind of the depth of the tumor into the colon wall and the risk that it has to spread.
If a stage two colon cancer has “bad features” identified by a pathology report, chemotherapy might be the right move.
“For example, if when they look at the pathology slides under the microscope, if they see that it’s involving some of the vessels nearby, then that is a higher risk factor,” she explained. “And then, those patients might be more likely to benefit from chemotherapy.”
Stage three colon cancers have spread to the lymph nodes. So, these patients “at least need a conversation of chemotherapy,” according to Dr. Yeo.
“For our patients with 3 or higher, they all need chemotherapy,” Dr. Yeo said.
Treatment Advances
Meanwhile, a new promising treatment for late stage colorectal cancer may soon be available for patients in need of options. The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) is currently reviewing the drug fruquintinib, an oral treatment by Takeda Oncology.
Fruquintinib is a targeted therapy for adults who have metastatic colorectal cancer and have tried other treatments. Results from a trial published in June showed the drug improved overall survival and progression-free survival, which is a measurement of the amount of time before the cancer comes back or spreads.
New Hope For Advanced Colorectal Patients: Drug Fruquintinib Shows Improved Overall Survival
When found early, colorectal cancer has a great prognosis. If detected before it spreads, 90% of those diagnosed have a 5-year survival. That is why so much emphasis is put into screening. But for those who are in a later stage, the prognosis is grim and there has been very little progress in treatment development.
Once you get to the metastatic setting, many patients “they just run out of options,” Jennifer Elliott, head of solid tumors at Takeda, explained to SurvivorNet at the ASCO Annual Meeting. So it was critically important for Takeda, to do this deal to in-license fruquintinib. We hope to give patients another option.”
Fruquintinib has been approved in China since 2018, and was originally developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company HUTCHMED. Takeda Oncology acquired the exclusive worldwide license for the drug outside of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau in January 2023.
Fruquintinib is an oral drug that inhibits angiogenesis, meaning it blocks the growth of blood vessels that increase tumor growth. It was investigated in two phase three trials for metastatic colorectal cancer.
“Both trials were robust large placebo controlled trials, and they both showed an overall survival advantage,” Elliott told SurvivorNet.
According to the study published in June, patients who received fruquintinib plus best supportive care (BSC) experienced 7.4 months of overall survival, compared to those who received a placebo plus BSC, who experienced 4.8 months of overall survival. And patients who received fruquintinib experienced 3.7 months of progression-free survival, over those who received placebo, who experienced 1.8 months of progression-free survival.
“I think what’s unique about fruquintinib is its manageable safety profile, as well as the fact that it didn’t decrease the quality of life of patients on the trial — which is really important in this late stage of disease,” Elliott told SurvivorNet.
The drug was granted Priority Review by the FDA and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of November 30, 2023. A marketing authorization application for the drug in Europe has also been validated.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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